Elsie Lincoln Benedict (November 1, 1885 – February 15,  1970) was a speaker and author who found recognition as the best known women’s speaker during the 1920’s, drawing large audiences totaling over 3 million people with her informed talks on a variety of subjects, most notably self-awareness and self-improvement.  Born Elsie Vandergrift in Kansas in 1885, she attended University of Colorado, Columbia University in Chicago, and Radcliffe College and achieved distinction in college as an orator, earning 12 gold medals and a place as the first woman on an intercollegiate debate team. She worked for the State of Colorado as the state Senate reporter, Chief of Advertising for the Land Office, and went on to become political editor for the Denver Press and Denver Post. She spoke frequently and eloquently on behalf of women’s suffrage and served as an organizer for the National American Woman Suffrage Association. She married Harvard graduate Ralph Payne Benedict in 1914. She established the Benedict School of Opportunity in 1918 to market lectures and correspondence courses, becoming a millionaire and settling in Carmel Highlands in California.  She traveled to 55 countries during her lifetime and published an exhaustive travel book documenting their travels. She and her husband continued their writing and speaking activities until his death in 1941, which prompted her retirement from public life.